Happy Holidays (no new post until New Years)

Where did the year go!! I thought it was just January last month!

Happy Holidays everyone (no new posts until New Years)

Enjoy the holiday season!

AvatarKokeshi

Watching the Avatar: The Last Airbender season 3. The show is so good.

Willis Henry Waiting

QwikSkribbles

I'm back to work on the blog!

This was a quick sketch as I try to sharpen my computer sketching skills.

Mythink Patchwork

Recently, I've been looking at Yoshitaka Amano's Vampire Hunter D artwork. But also Shinkawa Yoji's work on the Metal Gear Solid Series. Those mad geniuses got me to try something different. I love the smell and feel of wet paper and the ruff texture it leaves.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Some ruff sketches for one of my favorite animated programs.
I just saw the series finale!! Really great stuff. I tip my hat to the Production team. Great job!!

ChronoTrigger

ChronoTrigger is one of my all time favorite video games. At the time when Square could do no wrong with me( other hits Final Fantasy 3(US) and Super Mario RPG). The game had incredible Character Designs by Akira Toriyama the creator of DragonBall. I tried to copy these characters when I was young, and I still have the posters that came with the game. I remember devoting my life to this game when it came out on the Super Nintendo system. Ah, Good Times.

Willis Henry Begins

He's Back, No I'm not talking about myself. I'm talking about Willis Henry the name of the character above. I'm working on a graphic novel starring this little guy. Hopefully I can have it done around this time next year, but not only is this my first graphic novel, but the way I see it in my head it will be a challenge for me to make. But if it wasn't a challenge I probably would not do it. Anyway, I will post the progress of the graphic novel I have titled, Willis Henry: Savior of the Future.

Le Morte D'Arthur

With this post signals the end of the Road to Magic.

Thanks and take care all

Little Red

Little Red is my take on the Little Red Riding Hood story. I really liked the concept and the idea of a girl running from three mechanical wolves.

Momotaro

Here is the development drawings for my version of Momotaro.

Momotaro is one of my favorite Japanese stories.

Freestyle

Hello Again. Here are the four freestyle concepts. Many of the concepts were simple bits of ideas floating around in my head.

Intermission

Road to Magic (Countdown 1)

This weeks focus is on Color Thumbnails. The idea is to have one image of each story in full color as an eye catcher, and show that I do something other than black and white compositions.

For Momotaro I went between watercolor studies and those painted on the computer. Both styles have a different look but I think that I will try a slight combination between the two. I want to do two color pieces that shows the valley where the oni live which is dark and moody. Then the clean and beautiful valley after Momotaro's victory.

Little Red is a dark tale, so I want a dark and slightly menacing background with a hint of light which is where the heroine would stand.

Le Mort d'Arthur I want a straightforward composition of Camelot Castle interior.

Well this is the end of the countdown. Next week I will try to put the final touches on this project and I won't post anything. But in two weeks I will start posting the final versions of the three stories and the freestyles. Here's the breakdown...

Next week: No post
2 weeks: four Freestyle images
3 weeks: Final five artwork for Momotaro
4 Weeks: Final five artwork for Little Red
5 Weeks: Final five artwork for Le Mort d'Arthur

Take Care all

Road to Magic (Countdown 2)

This weeks focus is on Concept studies for the three stories of Momotaro (top four), Little Red (middle four), and Le Morte d'Arthur (bottom four). This is the next step up from the thumbnail stage. All of these were done in 3 x5 index card size in graphite. With the black and white studies I try to get a better understanding of light and dark before I go to a full sized image.

For next week I will have some color studies. (The end is near! The end is near!!)

take care everyone

Road to Magic (Countdown 3)

This week was to work on the Titles for the three stories, and development of the freestyle images.

For titles, I don't usually think about in my own work, but they are important. The title or logo is important because it give the audience an idea about the tone of the story is and gives a visual cue as to what they can expect. For example Momotaro is a story for a younger audience, in contrast to Le Morte d'Arthur. So the trick is how to express the story with the titles.

Freestyle images are going to be at the end of the portfolio, to give further examples of how I approach stories visually. Here I tried to give a snapshot of a key moment. Then leave it to the audience to imagine what happens before and after the key moment.

So for next week... I have no idea what I will put up. But it will be good... I hope.

See ya next week!

Road to Magic (Countdown 4)

This week is all Background Thumbs. For BG's I usually start small and fast. I try not to make anything too complicated. Starting small makes me focus on composition instead of detail, which should not be the focus at this early stage.

Momotaro I'm thinking about trying a Japanese print style with some theater stage design compositions. The idea is to keep the staging simple by layering foreground, middle ground, and background element.

Little Red BG's are more defined but I still tried to think of staging the scene for animated action that would pass through the background.

Le Morte d'Arthur, I want simpler BG's that are simple with areas of detail. The idea is the setting could be more implied which would help to push the focus to the character or action that would be in the scene.

Next week. Hm, not sure what I will show. It will probably be on the four alternate concepts or larger mock ups of the backgrounds with the character.

See ya next week.

Road to Magic (Countdown 5)

For this week, we have Rough Character Line Up. I often make character line ups to show the size and shape relationships.

For Momotaro, there is Momo, his animal friends and family, and also the four oni.

On Little Red, here is the early version of the little girl and her support characters but also the three wolves.

Le Morte D'Arthur, shows the four main characters rough forms.

Next week will focus on the development of Backgrounds starting with the thumbnail concepts.

Road to Magic (Countdown 6)

This week is all Le Morte D'Arthur.

I had a good time with it this week. I had to do alot of research and it was almost overwhelming. Because the Arthurian legends are such a popular subject; from Arthur Rackham to N.C. Wyeth to J.W. Waterhouse many great artist have touched on the subject.

The key for me is to filter it down to what I like and try to give it my own spin. I think my main touchstones will be Byzantine, Medieval, and Celtic art. The early images of Christ at those time periods have a flatness and an angularity but also use intricate curves that I really like.

I now finally have some direction, and I'm getting a better idea of the style I want to aim for. Now I just need to keep pushing forward.

Road to Magic (Countdown 7)

This is the work for the second week.

For Momotaro, the concept was fairly clear in my mind. I did a drawing of Momotaro last week that was super cute. I loved the design, so for this story, I'm going for a younger storybook feel. (Surprising note, I originally saw the character Momotaro as older and more mature.)
Anyway, this week I focused on Momo's animal friends. I have a strong idea for their look, so they are progressing well. The parent I'm keeping the designs simple, and the third character (the large guy) tells Momo and his parent of the invading Oni. So the principal Momo characters are going well. I now need to focus on the look of the Oni, and designing monsters is always fun.

For Little Red, I had alot to do on this concept, so this is where I focused much of my energy for the week.
Finally, the character of Little is starting to take shape. I was trying different variations of how I saw her in my head, and now I'm starting to see something I like.
As for Red the wolf and his buddies, I'm really having fun with them! I have alot of particulars and adjustments to make on all of them but I finally feel like progress is being made.

But what about the third concept Le Mort D'Arthur? This one is giving me the most trouble! This is the one where I have the least clear idea of how I want it to look; this makes it fun but also makes me nervous, and when I'm nervous I start to slow down. So to get in gear, I need to read more on the subject and do more research. Research is fun but can eat up time.
So next weeks blog post will be all about the Arthur concept.

Til next week...

Road to Magic (Countdown 8)

I am going to apply to Disney.

The discipline I am applying for is Visual Development. So I'm starting this countdown to track the progress of the material I will send Disney. The plan is that every Sunday I post my progress. For the visual development portfolio I will submit will be about 20 pieces of artwork. I have 3 stories that I will develop visually. One is Momotaro, two is Little Red Riding Hood (Little Red), and the third is Le Mort d'Arthur. Of the 20 art pieces 5 will be from each of the stories and the last 5 will be freestyle; one of which will be the Peter Pan image that is farther down on the blog.

This week we start with Character Designs for Momotaro and Little Red.